I had $19K of short term gains from selling stocks in 2020. I sold a long term bond in 2020 that I've owned for 7 years, at a $13K loss. The bond is a municipal Puerto Rico bond which I bought for $15K and sold for $2K. I was expecting Turbotax to let me deduct just $3K of the loss and carryover the rest to next year. The software actually deducted the whole $13K loss so I'm only showing a $6K gain of investment income. I'm okay with this, but I need to know if it's accurate. I do have carryover loss from prior years that was not deducted, but held for next year. Is this a software glitch or is this correct?
@zenmit wrote:
Is this a software glitch or is this correct?
The software is correct. In short, capital losses offset capital gains. Your $13,000 loss was used to offset your $19,000 gain leaving a net gain of $6,000.
Where there may be confusion here is that $3,000 in net capital losses is the maximum that can be used, in any one tax year, to offset all other types of income. So, if your total gains were $13,000 and your total losses were $19,000, you would have a net capital loss of $6,000. You could then use $3,000 of that $6,000 loss to offset your other income with the balance ($3,000) being carried forward to the next tax year.
See https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/investments-and-taxes/capital-gains-and-losses/L7GF1ouP8
@zenmit wrote:
Is this a software glitch or is this correct?
The software is correct. In short, capital losses offset capital gains. Your $13,000 loss was used to offset your $19,000 gain leaving a net gain of $6,000.
Where there may be confusion here is that $3,000 in net capital losses is the maximum that can be used, in any one tax year, to offset all other types of income. So, if your total gains were $13,000 and your total losses were $19,000, you would have a net capital loss of $6,000. You could then use $3,000 of that $6,000 loss to offset your other income with the balance ($3,000) being carried forward to the next tax year.
See https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/investments-and-taxes/capital-gains-and-losses/L7GF1ouP8